House GOP scrambles to avoid blame for government shutdown

[ProSense]

House GOP scrambles to avoid blame for government shutdown

by Jed Lewison

National Journal's Major Garrett reports House Republicans are planning to offer a short-term spending bill designed to cover their asses in the event of a government shutdown:

House GOP Working on CR to Avert Shutdown, Deflect Blame

House Republicans are drafting a two-week continuing resolution to keep the government operating after the current CR expires on March 4 and will file the bill on Friday, National Journal has learned. ... Three senior House GOP aides said the strategy is designed to avert a government shutdown and limit the ability of Senate Democrats and the White House to portray Republicans as unreasonable or inflexible.

The thing is, if Republicans are trying to avoid looking unreasonable, they are going about it in exactly the wrong way:

The CR would extend government financing for two weeks after Obama signed the bill and its cuts would be prorated to reflect the $100 billion in cuts approved in last week’s CR. In other words, the $4 billion in savings would be roughly equal to the cuts the CR called for if carried out for just two weeks.

If Republicans were serious about avoiding a government shutdown, they'd agree to Harry Reid's proposal to keep government open through the end of March with a continuing resolution at current funding levels. That would give both sides time to sit down and forge a compromise solution and it would prevent a government shutdown.

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